Professional Researcher in Molecular Imaging and Neurobiology of Neurodegenerative Proteinopathies

Professional Researcher in Molecular Imaging and Neurobiology of Neurodegenerative Proteinopathies

The Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is seeking an outstanding and motivated individual to join our cutting-edge research institute aimed at elucidating the mechanisms of protein aggregation including studies to understand how conformational heterogeneity, maturation, and transmission of proteopathic assemblies (prions) differ across neural cell types and diseases with a focus on tau, amyloid-beta, and alpha-synuclein.

The successful incumbent will help manage and contribute to our program in ex vivo human molecular neuropathology, biochemistry, and advance optical imaging in postmortem brain samples from different etiological forms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) involving tauopathy (e.g., primary tauopathies). This position is a part of the Institute 's broad focus on developing a highly skilled and multidisciplinary team to discover the causes of neurodegenerative disease, and develop effective pharmacologic treatments, cures, and diagnostic markers for these diseases.

The IND is directed by Nobel Laureate Dr. Stanley Prusiner and located at the Sandle r Neurosciences Center at UCSF's Mission Bay campus, a world-renowned hub of biomedical research and discovery.

The successful applicant will be an experienced cell and molecular biology researcher with expertise in biomedical research and in the operation and support of state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopes, other molecular imaging instruments, biochemical extraction protocols and immunoassays, cell type-specific isolation techniques, computational analyses and statistics, including personnel training, experimental design, and project execution. They will be responsible for developing and applying these methods and skills to support the operation of ongoing research efforts of the Condello Lab.

This will additionally include collaboration and research with other IND faculty and research teams on groundbreaking projects. Thus, the incumbent will be a skilled communicator with interests in working as a team with members across disciplines at the IND to advance biomedical research efforts to understand the cellular and molecular basis of protein aggregation and in brain aging and different neurodegenerative diseases and establish pre-clinical models to test putative therapeutics and diagnostics.

Responsibilities will include procurement, validation, and characterization of ex vivo human brain samples, in vitro human iPSC-derived neural cell models, and transgenic rodents to study the cell/molecular biology and biochemistry of protein aggregates causing dysfunction and selective vulnerability in neurons and glial cells in neurodegenerative disease, which will include the use of advanced molecular labeling methods, confocal-based fluorescence lifetime and spectral imaging, standard biochemistry and molecular biology methods, protein and cell enrichment techniques.

The incumbent will also be responsible for establishing standard protocols for the lab and training/mentoring junior lab members. As the projects mature and evolve, the incumbent will also participate in the development of molecular probes as potential diagnostic agents for use in preclinical rodent models for drug discovery and validation in ex vivo human samples as potential biomarkers for diagnostic development.

Further, they will learn other advanced molecular imaging techniques, including spatial transcriptomics with MERSCOPE, spatial metabolomics with MALDI-mass spectrometry imaging, and small animal PET imaging. The incumbent will perform data analysis and statistics using available software. As a senior member of the lab, and to build leadership skills, the incumbent will work with Dr. Condello to coordinate lab management and organization, as well as training junior postdoctoral scientists, graduate students and lab technicians.

Further, the incumbent will contribute to manuscript preparation for publications and grant proposal writing to support fundraising efforts for the…